All Politics is now Global

New Spy Headquarters Highlights Germany’s Changing Role

German police stand guard in front of the Federal Intelligence Service headquarters in Berlin on February 8. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

The newfound importance of Germany’s national spy agency is deeply symbolic of its changing foreign policy.

Germany opened a new headquarters for its national spy agency, the bnd, on February 8. The opening of this new facility in the very heart of Berlin is symbolic of an ongoing transformation in Germany’s foreign policy.

Deutsche Welle noted that “the move signals a major symbolic change for Germany, no longer shying away from taking a prominent role on the global stage.” The opening is not only a step forward for the bnd, but also for Germany’s international role.

The bnd headquarters was previously located in the countryside near Munich. Now that it has moved to the center of Berlin, it is close to other government offices and the former site of the Berlin Wall. Moving the headquarters to this area where Germany was once divided but is now united and resurgent is a symbolic victory.

The imposing $1.3 billion limestone-and-aluminum-fronted building covers an area roughly the size of 36 soccer fields and will accommodate 4,000 intelligence workers.

Hansjörg Geiger, head of the bnd, hailed the move to Berlin as a positive step in promoting greater integration between the nation’s government and its intelligence services. He expects the move will allow the bnd to “respond immediately and quickly” to developing situations and in turn cause the government to take its role “more seriously.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel was present for the official opening, and she gave an address in which she called for the bnd to become a “strong, efficient foreign intelligence agency.” She also addressed the fact that Germans are still troubled by the legacy of the Stasi and the Gestapo, but encouraged them to view the bnd presence as normal and in Germany’s best interest. “A healthy distrust is helpful,” she said, “but being overly suspicious is a hindrance.”

As Deutsche Welle stated, this is another sign of a resurgent Germany stepping up to shoulder greater responsibility on the world scene.

But why should those of us outside of Germany be interested in what the bnd does?

Because the bnd’s history is frightening—and it is connected to Bible prophecies that will impact the future of every nation and every individual.

After Germany’s defeat in World War ii, the Nazis went underground. A declassified document released by the United States Central Intelligence Agency showed that in 1944, top Nazi officials and industrialists had a concrete plan to go underground until a suitable time came to resurrect the Reich. (We reproduced this document in full on pages 32-35 of our free booklet Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.)

The bnd is one well-documented example of this resurrection. After World War ii, the cia needed a means to gather intelligence on Soviet forces. To accomplish this quickly, it turned to Maj. Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, a Nazi with extensive experience commanding an intelligence unit during the war, who had prepared intelligence reports on the Red Army.

Before the war ended, Gehlen ordered that all his secret documents be recorded on film and hidden. The cia found Gehlen, who made a deal: He would hand over his intelligence on the Russians in exchange for funding to cooperate with the cia and re-create his wartime spy agency. Gehlen’s organization became the bnd. Filling the ranks were former members of the Nazi Party, the SS and the Gestapo.

…

The bnd may be under different leadership today, but the fact remains that it has Nazi roots, as do Germany’s Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry.

…

The world now recognizes that Germany is “no longer shying away from taking a prominent role on the global stage.” Germany’s power is rising again on the world scene. To learn more about where this is leading, request your free copy of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.